than it did to the melodious, the insinuating, and the sportive. If, however, in the enthusiasm of admiration, we can find room for the frigidity of criticism, his action seemed the most open to objection. It was forcible, uniform, and ungraceful. In a word, the most celebrated orators of antiquity were in a great measure the children of labour and cultivation. Lord Chatham was always natural and himself.

To the misfortune of the republic of letters, and of posterity, his lordship never sought the press. Lord Chesterfield says, "that he had a most happy turn for poetry; but it is more than probable that Chesterfield was deceived; for we are told by his biographer that his verses to Garrick were very meagre, and lord Chatham himself said that he seldom indulged and seldom avowed it. It should seem, then, that he himself set no great value upon it. Perhaps a proper confidence of one's self is essential to all extraordinary merit. Why should we ambitiously ascribe to one mind every species of human excellence? But though he was no poet, it is more than probable, that he would have excelled as much in writing prose as he did in speaking it.